Most failures in life and career are time-wasters.
Time, a simple four letter word, is as important as life, another four letter
word. Waste your time then and you would have succeeded in wasting your life.
Time is freely and equally given to all but utilized in different ways; some
profitably, others contrariwise. The big question is: how do you spend your
time?
There are many people out there having great ideas
and visions, they are gifted and talented, they fail only in the area of time
management. For, “He who wastes an hour a day has not discovered the value of
life".
Take a careful look at the under listed, one or more
of them may well qualify you as a time waster. The list is however
not exhaustive.
1. Living from
day to day without planning.
This is synonymous to leaving ones' life
to chance. It is too expensive to be experimented not to talk of it becoming a
life style. Planning is the first antidote against time-wasting.
2. Oversleeping.
If you sleep for ten hours a day, by the time you are age 24, you would have
slept ten years of your life away. Oversleeping indeed can rub one of precious
time and opportunities.
3. Putting off till another time,
another day, what should have been done now. This is a vivid description of
procrastination, which has long been identified as the number one self-made
enemy to success. Procrastination is as rightly described, 'thief of time'.
There will never be a perfect time to do anything in this life. The best time
and the time we can always be sure of is 'NOW'.
4. Not having priorities.
Doing what comes our ways with no regard to our priorities in life may be an
unmistakable sign of confusion, lack or loss of focus and lack or loss of a
sense of purpose. There are so many tasks begging for our attention and it will
be practically impossible to attend to all of them. The principle of profitable
time management will teach us to attend to the most important task first.
There are tasks that are important but unnecessary. There are those
that are necessary but not compulsory. Wisdom demands that we tackle first
those that are compulsory, necessary and most important.
5. Habitual idleness.
When you
are habitually idle, you not only waste time but squander priceless
opportunities. It is one of the commonest saying that 'an idle mind is Satan's workshop'.
6. Engaging in unnecessary phone
discussions, frivolous visitation or aimless internet browsing.
When
you involve yourself in any of these, you may unknowingly be enlisting in the 'association of time wasters'. The time conscious person will clearly
define the goal for all time spent particularly surfing the internet, visiting
people and in phone discussions.
7. Addiction to television.
As I write about this, the story of a great achiever,
Ben Carson, readily came to my mind. I recall in his book, 'Gifted Hands',
Carson, did narrate how his mum limited the number of television programs he
could watch in a week to only two; and he was to invest the time so gained on his studies. Amazingly,
that single step lead to significant improvement in his academic success.
Today, he is a celebrated neurosurgeon. This is enough to teach us what havoc
addiction to television can do.
No doubt, there are profitable programs on the
television and I am not suggesting doing away with them. However, I dare say,
very many programs on the TV are not meant for our consumption. How many hours
do you daily spend before the television box/screen? It may be one thing frustrating your effort on profitable time management.
Hello Adewuyi, its interesting to read this post by you. more ink in your pen!!
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